Studies in the Medicine of Ancient India, Part I: Osteology, or the Bones of the Human Body c7.t2.1

c7.t2.1

1. Allowing for the modifying causes explained in the preceding paragraph, the views of the early Indian anatomists are surprisingly accurate. This is due to the fact that they were accustomed to the practice of preparing the dead human body for actual examination, and that, therefore, their views were the direct result of an experimental knowledge of the skeleton. It is true that the Compendium of Charaka contains no reference whatever to the practice of human dissection; and it must, therefore, remain doubtful whether, and to what extent, that practice was observed in the school of Atreya. But there can be no doubt as to the practice being known and observed in the school of Suśruta; for his Compendium contains a passage which gives detailed instructions regarding the procedure to be adopted in preparing a dead body for anatomical examination.